by Ide Owodiong-Idemeko, NAS Cap’n, National Association of Seadogs
Pope Benedict XVI stunned the world’s one billion Catholics and the entire world on 11 February, 2013 with news of his resignation! He had only been Pope for less than eight years; and here he was, giving up an office that he had the right to hold onto from the date of his election until his death!
In his own words, “After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry.” With those weighty words, the 85-year-old Pope Benedict was putting into practice a suggestion he had made in an interview back in 2010 that if a Pope were to find himself to be too old or too unwell to effectively perform his duties, it would be his right and duty to give up the office.
As the world continues to ponder the gravity of what has been confirmed as the first papal resignation in nearly 600 years, we in Nigeria must strive to draw on the powerful lessons of the Pope’s example. In contrast to the Pope’s exemplary and voluntary surrender of power on account of age and general ill-health, our country has over the years been plagued by officeholders and politicians who are so obsessed with power that neither the law, nor age, nor extreme ill-health, nor even crass incompetence is enough reason to make them consider loosening their grip on power.
From the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, we witnessed Ibrahim Babangida’s endless transition to civil democratic government. Next, came Sani Abacha’s nearly successful transformation from military dictator to civilian president-for-life. In more recent years, our country endured the stress and the ridicule that attended Olusegun Obasanjo’s brazen attempt to amend our constitution and contrive an illegal extension of his tenure as president. Then came the more ludicrous and shameful episode of Umaru Yar’Adua who in spite of clear incapacitation clung onto power until the bitter end.
Across our country today, we are seeing more examples of the sit-tight syndrome among governors and other officeholders who have taken to governing from hospital beds in Europe, Asia and the Americas. From Sullivan Chime of Enugu State to Liyel Imoke of Cross River State to Dambaba Suntai of Taraba State, our officeholders have shown varying degrees of inability to let go of power when severely incapacitated.
Another disturbing manifestation of the sit-tight syndrome has been the continued domination of the political space by a host of people who by now should ordinarily be in retirement. At a time when gerontocracies across the world have yielded place to governments led by the young and the dynamic, it is sad to note that our political discourse and fortunes are still largely determined by octogenarians and septuagenarians many of whose time in government dates back to the 1960s. If our country must make progress in the 21st Century world, we must move away from this tragicomic combination of expiring and expired leaders and absentee presidents and state governors who are photo-shopped, air brushed and propped up by cronies in desperate power-clinging endeavours.
While Pope Benedict’s example counsels honourable self-surrender upon a realization of impending incapacity, our political class has proven that it does not take a healthy body and a sane mind to run Nigeria; one only needs the right amount of greed and an unwillingness to relinquish power no matter what. It is our duty as citizens and as the civil society to counter this heresy. We must commit to the arduous task of re-orientating our political class and holding them to higher standards. One way to start is by preaching and advancing the central lesson of Pope Benedict’s resignation – which is, that the true purpose of leadership is service and that holding on to power when one is not fit to serve is an unforgivable sin.
